Chapter 39

Chapter 39. Underground Dungeon (4)

Even when the torches all went out at once and the entire underground space was dyed in darkness, Patem did not panic much. After all, he was nominally a Rogue.

However, when he realized that the mana he had cultivated and built up his entire life had scattered like dust, even he could not help but panic.

What did it matter if he was a skilled Rogue? Without mana, he was only half of himself. Could he use stealth? Could he spread smoke? Could he do anything at all?

All of a sudden, he had been reduced to dead weight. He was nothing more than a back-alley thief who was somewhat good at swinging a dagger and moved a little quickly.

Of course, he was confident that he could protect himself with that alone, but unfortunately, the underground dungeon of an ancient ruin was not a place one could survive without any abilities.

All the more so if unidentified intruders had invaded that underground dungeon.

In the darkness where he could not see an inch ahead, Patem gritted his teeth and fought. Even amid the chaos, he had managed to cut the breath from two enemies, so he could be said to have done quite well.

Of course, that was the end of it. Patem had lost more than half of his abilities, but the enemies were sharp and swift. While facing the third enemy, his shoulder was cut, and he ended up dropping his dagger. Soon, he sensed death.

Feeling his life flash before his eyes, he quietly closed his eyes. Strangely, however, no pain came. Even after he waited for quite some time.

Finding that strange, he opened his eyes. Before him, he saw a muscular Warrior with an impressive broad, inverted-triangle back strangling a man in black with one hand.

When that muscular Warrior applied strength to his grip, the man in black collapsed to the floor with the sound of bones breaking. The Warrior brushed off his hands and asked while looking at Patem.

“Are you all right?”

“H-huh?”

“Are you hurt anywh... Hmm, you are.”

Patem blinked. Was this a dream or reality?

“Wait a little. I will stop the bleeding.”

“D-did I live?”

“You lived.”

“I-I see, urgh!”

“Endure it. It hurts a lot.”

“Understood! Urgh!”

With a bewildered expression, Patem watched Balun stop the bleeding from his arm. The sight of him casually tying his arm with cloth looked almost like that of a savior.

“You saved me.”

“You could say that.”

While enduring the pain, he looked around. There had clearly been so many of them, yet now all of them were scattered across the floor as corpses.

“Thank you. Truly, thank you.”

“What is there to thank me for? We are comrades. It is only natural.”

“No, you are the benefactor who saved my life. I cannot deny that fact.”

Patem bowed his head deeply to Balun. Balun scratched the back of his neck awkwardly.

It was because hearing such words from someone he had nearly tried to kill made him feel terribly embarrassed.

“No. Balun has nothing to say. I said harsh things to you too. I said those who hide cannot be trusted.”

At Balun’s words, Patem chuckled.

“Do you think I am an idiot who cannot judge a situation? That was directed at the enemies, was it not?”

“Uh, that...”

“You must have been giving us a hint in your own way. That there were enemies. I was the one who failed to notice it. I was dull. I am a man unqualified to be a guide.”

Balun closed his mouth. He did not even know what he should say.

Should he tell the truth? But it really did not seem like the right timing... It also felt as though he would ruin the mood for no reason.

“That is not true. You are skilled.”

In the end, all Balun could do was comfort him.

“If I were, I would not have been caught. Ugh.”

Patem stood up while brushing the dust off his backside. Around them, the surviving advance party members were leaning against the wall and catching their breath. They all looked visibly exhausted.

“Judging from the situation, you must have taken care of all these things.”

“We did it together.”

“What do you mean, together? Look at the state of those corpses. No matter how anyone sees it, you were the one who did it.”

Balun scratched the back of his head. He was right. If it had not been for his two-handed axe, the corpses would not have been so brutally mutilated.

Honestly, it was a little embarrassing.

That was understandable, because he had practically chopped the enemies into pieces.

What was this, as if he were some berserker who had gone out of control?

“I was angry. These bastards targeted us. Balun could not leave them alive.”

“Ah, I know. I would have done the same. You did very well. Thanks to you, I feel completely refreshed. Am I the only one?”

When Patem said that as though he wanted everyone to hear, Balun saw people here and there nodding with weary expressions. The corners of their mouths were slightly raised.

Their expressions were filled with goodwill. Balun found that extremely awkward. Until they had been ambushed, the atmosphere had seemed quite cold...

“It seems everyone has recovered somewhat.”

Everyone’s eyes focused on the low voice. It was Gregory.

He walked to the center with cloth wrapped around his right arm. When the advance party members saw that the cloth was stained red, they were startled.

“Lord Gregory! Your arm...!”

“It is all right. I survived because Lord Balun helped me quickly.”

“But the blood!”

“You do not need to worry. I will not die. The arrow has been removed, and the bleeding has stopped. I also treated it simply.”

Balun’s eyes went round.

‘What? When did he pull out the arrow?’

If he pulled it out carelessly, it would bleed a lot.

That was why Balun had not removed the arrow and had only broken it off.

“Gregory. Are you truly all right?”

“Yes. While Lord Balun was dealing with the enemies, I treated myself. I am quite fine now, so you do not need to worry. Haha.”

“Is this self-treatment perhaps magic?”

“Yes. That is right.”

“I am envious.”

“Pardon?”

“No. Nothing.”

Balun smacked his lips.

‘It seems he can use something like self-healing.’

He was dying of envy.

Could Enhancement Art not do something like that?

“Let us check our condition. First, we should confirm our numbers.”

At Gregory’s words, everyone’s expressions darkened. It was likely because they had lost quite a few comrades.

Gregory spoke firmly.

“I understand that you are grieving, but we must still do what we must. If we are to return safely.”

They immediately counted their numbers. The advance party had twenty-five people in total, and among them, fourteen remained.

In all, they had lost as many as eleven comrades.

Everyone’s expressions were dark. How could their expressions be bright when such an accident had already occurred before they had even properly fulfilled the role of the advance party?

However, two people thought differently.

‘Considering the damned environment, surviving with fourteen people is better than expected.’

One of them was Balun.

“This is fortunate, at least. More of you are alive than I expected. Most importantly, one Pathfinder is still with us, so I believe there is hope.”

The other was Gregory.

Perhaps they had not expected Gregory to say that, because the advance party members widened their eyes. Balun was the same.

Balun had plenty of experience in war, so he was relatively accustomed to the deaths of allies, but Gregory did not seem that way at all.

He felt extremely calm.

Was it because he was a Mage?

“There are two options we can choose right now.”

Gregory raised two fingers. Everyone focused on him.

“One is to continue the exploration as we are, and the other is to leave the dungeon as we are and rejoin the main force. Which do you think would be best?”

“Of course we should go back!”

“Eleven people died. If we continue the exploration, we may be wiped out!”

“That is right!”

Voices rose from here and there. It was unanimously decided that they would return. Naturally, Balun was also on the side of returning.

“Good. Then we will return. However, there are three problems.”

“Pardon? As many as three?”

“That is correct.”

Balun’s expression turned strange. What were these three problems?

“First, there are still enemies remaining.”

“Pardon? No, what does that mean?”

Everyone was startled, but Balun was not. It was because he could still feel faint Killing Intent.

“The enemies are somewhere inside this place. I do not know how many there are, but they are certainly here. If we are to leave, we will have to deal with them.”

“Fine. Let us deal with them, then. What is the second?”

“The second is that we cannot contact the main force.”

“Pardon?”

“We blew the whistle for emergency contact, and yet the main force has shown no response. That means something has undoubtedly happened.”

A brief silence followed.

Balun asked.

“Are you saying the main force was attacked too?”

“I am not saying that is necessarily the case, but we cannot ignore the possibility. They would not deliberately fail to respond after receiving the signal.”

“This is one disaster after another.”

The advance party’s expressions darkened even further. How had the situation become like this? They had truly never imagined it.

“And the third problem. This is actually the largest one.”

“What is it?”

“The path out is blocked.”

“Pardon?”

At those words, the expedition members reflexively looked around. However, it was too dark to see properly. Even now, they could only barely look at each other’s faces with the newly lit torches.

At that, Gregory used Light Magic to illuminate the interior, and the advance party members let out cries of despair.

It was because the direction they had entered from had been blocked by the collapsed ceiling and walls.

“Damn it!”

“No!”

“Then we cannot get out!”

Shock and screams poured out.

Compared to them, Gregory’s expression was calm.

“Normally, yes. But if we find a method, it may be possible. We will only know whether something is possible after trying.”

To be precise, he was trying hard to remain calm.

That was because he was the leader of this party.

Before Balun had saved everyone’s lives, the advance party members had all been listening to his orders.

He could see despair settling over his comrades’ faces. By contrast, Balun’s expression was far too calm. It was so composed that it was on an entirely different level from Gregory’s expression, which was forcibly suppressing fear.

‘Impressive. How can he be so calm even in this situation?’

Of course, that was his misunderstanding.

Among these fourteen people, Balun was screaming the loudest inside right now.

‘Ah, my life.’

A sigh of lament surged up.

He had just been glad that he had survived, but now what?

Something had happened to the main force, enemies remained, and the path out was blocked?

‘Then I cannot receive my remaining 250 gold.’

Forget receiving the remaining payment. They were now at the point where they had to worry about survival.

‘Ah, I miss my mother.’

Balun rubbed his face roughly with his palm. He had to get a hold of himself and harden his resolve. Only then would he be able to see his mother later.

“Gregory. Let me ask one thing.”

“Yes.”

“Can you keep the ceiling from collapsing?”

“I can do that, but why do you ask?”

“Balun will try to make a way out.”

“Pardon? You will make a path? What do you mean...?”

Balun sprang to his feet and approached the blocked entrance.

Receiving everyone’s questioning gazes, Balun took a deep breath.

‘Will this work?’

Honestly, he did not know.

He was only trying it because there was a chance.

“Use magic. Now.”

“Yes.”

Gregory recited an incantation.

Balun used Enhancement Art.

In an instant, Balun’s two arms swelled visibly.

And in that state, Balun lifted one of the collapsed rocks.

It was a massive boulder, larger than four grown men combined.

It looked so heavy that no human should possibly have been able to lift it, and yet what happened?

“Th-this is insane!”

“He lifted that?”

Balun lifted it. Easily, at that.

‘This actually works?’

What was surprising was that it was not that heavy.

Rather, what gave Balun trouble was controlling his strength.

It was because he felt as though the boulder would break if he applied even a little more force.

If that happened, he would have to do a task two or three times when once should have been enough.

“Move. It is heavy.”

“U-understood!”

The advance party members quickly moved aside, and Balun walked for quite some time before setting down the enormous boulder.

The eyes of the advance party members watching Balun brush off his hands were filled with awe.

At that, Gregory could not help but ask.

“Lord Balun.”

“What?”

“Are you human?”

“What?”

“Ah, no. Please pretend you did not hear that.”

For a moment, Gregory imagined what it would have been like if that man were an enemy.

He quickly stopped imagining it.

Just thinking about it was horrifying.

“Fortunately, it works. We will do this. Balun is in human excavator mode. I will open the blocked path. We can escape through there.”

“E-excavator? What is that?”

“Such a thing exists.”

Do not ask even about things like that when he was exhausted to death.

***

The operation to open a path by lifting and moving the debris blocking the way one piece at a time, which Balun himself had named the “human excavator operation,” was truly successful.

It was because, though it was rather frustrating, the path was being opened step by step.

Even the advance party members, who had been anxiously wondering whether this would really work, began to hold hope.

Of course, there were twists and turns.

It was because they encountered men in black here and there while opening the path.

Perhaps there had been space beyond the collapsed walls, because they came rushing in groups.

Even though they fought three more battles, fortunately, not a single person died.

In any case, after suffering through all kinds of hardship, Balun finally opened the path completely.

“I-I can see it!”

“It is the exit!”

“We survived!”

As they finally faced the visible light, they shed tears of emotion...

‘Hm?’

No, they did not.

Because something about the scene was strange.

‘What is this? Where did everyone go?’

There should clearly have been many people.

Why was this place such a mess too?

The old stone buildings, full of moss, had all collapsed.

And the campsite across from them was...

“Hmm.”

Balun groaned softly.

All the tents in the campsite had been torn apart.

And he could see people lying on the ground.